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How Twinkies Work · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: from house Stuff Works dot Com? Hey, and welcome to
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: arguably the most important podcast Chuck Bryant and I will
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: ever record. I'm Josh Clark. This is stuff you should know,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: and brother, I am jacked up me three. You're ready? Yeah,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: I'm speaking for Jerry. So she's the Marcel Marcello our group. Yeah,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: she's always wears the gloves. Hate mins? I actually don't
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: hate monsisistic cliche to say you hate mins. Minds are cool?
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: It says who that minds are cool? Yeah? I just
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: said it, jerk. Chuck and I have clearly been eating
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: far too many Twinkies in preparation of this. Yes we have, yeah, Chuck, Yes,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: what do you know about the twinkie? Let's talk about twinkies.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about twinkies. Everyone knows the twinkie is a
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  Speaker 1: popular junk food snack cake. Yes, legendary junk food snack egg.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: I would say, I would say legendary as well. I'm
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: glad we're doing something light like this. Just lighten Yeah,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: and Chuck, how long is it twinkie. Twinkie is uh
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  Speaker 1: four inches long? How wide is it? Twinkie? Inch and
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  Speaker 1: a half? Did you know that originally it was first
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: invented it was made with banana cream filling. Indeed, let's
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: get into this, buddy. Those are just some teasers, all right.
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  Speaker 1: So the twinkie was first invented in the nineteen thirties. Yes,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Continental Bakeries. Yeah, they're the vice president of Continental Bakeries,
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  Speaker 1: which is already doing business as Hostess, which we know
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  Speaker 1: and love, is the maker of Twinkies and what I
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: consider to be the greatest snack food of all time,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: the crumb cake. Really a fan. I like the nutty bar,
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: the Little Debbie nutty bars. We're not we're talking host
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: is here, buddy? Yeah? Um, they will assassinate you. What
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: are those? They're like pink balls? What are those snowballs?
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  Speaker 1: Chucks on it? Alright, So back in the vice president
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: of Continental Bakery he's a guy named James. What is it,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: James Dooer. James Dooer not a Scotch maker. His brother
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: could have been. Um. He decided that the company's idle
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: machinery that was used to make a strawberry filled little
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: shortbread Fingers was the brand name. Um could be put
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  Speaker 1: to better use. Well, the machines were idle because sea yeah, seasonal,
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  Speaker 1: because strawberries only grow certain times of the year, right,
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  Speaker 1: so the rest of the year that they would just
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  Speaker 1: sit there. And this bug doer and he decided to
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: do something about it. So he came up with a
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  Speaker 1: little uh, little yellow cake filled with creamy filling jammy
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  Speaker 1: frosting if you were, that could be made year round. Um.
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  Speaker 1: And apparently on his way to a marketing meeting for
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: this snack cake, he passed a billboard for twinkletoe shoes,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: which I gotta tell you, I would never buy shoes
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: called twinkletoe shoes. Sure you would, you dream sailor totally would. Uh.
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  Speaker 1: And that was it. He had the name right there,
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  Speaker 1: and Twinkies were born. Yeah, there's always a cute story
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  Speaker 1: behind names like that. Anytime the words twinkle and toes
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  Speaker 1: are putty together, it's a cute story. Yeah. Um, so
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  Speaker 1: twinkies were born, and uh, as I said, they were
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  Speaker 1: made with banana cream filling, right for a while, Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: until World War Two. Yeah, I didn't this. I thought
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: this is pretty interesting. They quit doing that because there
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: was a shortfall of bananas during the war. Yeah, I
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: had no idea. No, I can see rubber and and
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: you know, iron steel and yeah, I know, men, maybe
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: it's from all the banana bombs we were dropping confetti missiles. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Um,
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  Speaker 1: so that they replaced the banana with vanilla frosting, right,
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  Speaker 1: and it's stuck. Yeah, it definitely stuck. Although um every
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: once in a while Hostess released the banana flavored Twinkie
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  Speaker 1: and like the limited run, and every time they did
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  Speaker 1: they noticed sales increased, which is pretty substantial. And now
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  Speaker 1: it's permanent as of two thousand seven. Yeah, let's talk
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: about the early twinkie and the pure goodness that was
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  Speaker 1: the early twinkie. Yeah, it was in the early days, Josh.
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  Speaker 1: It was made with eggs, milk, butter, as you would
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  Speaker 1: expect it to be because it was cake and it
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  Speaker 1: had a shelf life. The problem there was had a
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  Speaker 1: shelf life of what like two days two days, so
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  Speaker 1: the salesman had to rotuate the stock every two days.
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  Speaker 1: And that was cool because it tasted good. But Doer said,
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  Speaker 1: you know, this isn't I'm not making as much money
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  Speaker 1: as like a chuck. Can you imagine how divine a
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  Speaker 1: twinkie made with like real butter and milk and eggs
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  Speaker 1: would be. It's called it's called cake. Well yeah, but
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  Speaker 1: cake with like real vanilla frosting and in that shape too. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: that would be great. I would love for someone to
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  Speaker 1: make and send me a real original twinkie. That would
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  Speaker 1: be awesome. Yeah. I just zoned out for a second
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: thinking about that. I know, seriously, you just glazed over. Okay,
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: So these days it's actually up to thirty nine ingredients,
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: and most of them come out of labs, right, Yeah. Unfortunately,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of chemicals going on. You've got like
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: yellow number five. There's still sugar in plenty of sugar,
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  Speaker 1: just corn syrup of course, our old friend. And uh,
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  Speaker 1: there's also bleached wheat flour and I think sugar and
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  Speaker 1: flour the two biggest ingredients in it, right right. Uh.
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  Speaker 1: Monoglycerides and diaglycerides have replaced the eggs, yeah, which act
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  Speaker 1: as emulsifiers. Smulsifiers, they stabilize the cake batter and enhance
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  Speaker 1: the flavor. Yeah, apparently for the filling they use to
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  Speaker 1: achieve the same and polyscerbate sixty, which does much it
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  Speaker 1: emulsifies the frosting. Same thing. Yeah, and there's hydrogenated shortening
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  Speaker 1: instead of butter, although there is artificial butter flavor and
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  Speaker 1: artificial vanilla flavor, and both of those are actually made
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  Speaker 1: from petroleum. Yeah. When I read that, I was I
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: was a little taken aback, to be honest. Yeah, I'm
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: not a big I mean to eat twinkies now anymore? Well,
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: you know, I don't eat at all, but I do
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  Speaker 1: occasionally enjoy a twinkie for sure. I haven't had a
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  Speaker 1: twinkie in a long time. Did you treat yourself? And
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: I'm not opposed. I mean, I'll down the Ben and
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: Jerry's and I'm not opposed to eating fattening goodness. I know.
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  Speaker 1: I think part of it is twinkies are associated with youth. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: i'd agree with that. I'm telling you, go back and
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: eat a twinkie. You'll love yourself. Well, you know, my
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: mom used to make um strawberry shortcake with twinkies. Nice.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah it was good, monte, very nice seventies dessert too. Yeah,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: you know, before the key party, load the kids up
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  Speaker 1: with a twinkie strawberry shortcake. And apparently she's not the
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: only one to experiment with twinkies. I have a Twinkies
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  Speaker 1: cookbook at home, actually sorts of crazy stuff in there. Yeah,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: you should have brought that in. I should have. I
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  Speaker 1: don't have the kind of foresight that you expect me
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  Speaker 1: to have. You had the deep fried twinkie. I used
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  Speaker 1: to make them and sell them at this beer festival
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  Speaker 1: the last couple of years. Oh dude, I can make
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  Speaker 1: a fried twinkie like you would not believe. How do
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: you do that? It's incredibly simple. So you have like
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: a vat of oil. I think peanut oil. Maybe peanut
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  Speaker 1: all is the best. It's the worst for you, but
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: it tastes the best. Um. And you just take like
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: pancake batter or fry batter, right, um, and you make
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: the batter up better up, and you you just dip
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: the twinkie in the batter, throw it in the deep fryer.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: I just throw it in there. Wo man, that sounds good.
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  Speaker 1: Pull it out, throw some powdered sugar on there. Oh
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: my god. Actually you'll see. God, it's like a funnel cake.
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  Speaker 1: Turbo funnel cake is what it really is. No, not
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  Speaker 1: at all, not at all. It's like it's like a
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  Speaker 1: funnel cake with a Twinkie inside. It's the greatest thing
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  Speaker 1: you'll ever have. And I can make a good fried
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  Speaker 1: oreo too. Really, huh, you never cook for me. I
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  Speaker 1: will sometimes you'll have to come over. We'll shave some
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  Speaker 1: years off our life. Seriously, Uh excuse me? Should we
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: talk about the the process of how they make it
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  Speaker 1: in the factory. It's kind of cool. Yeah, So, Josh,
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  Speaker 1: we're in the Twinkie factory. This is Jerry's big chance
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  Speaker 1: to add some sound of thags. We're in the we're
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: in the Twinkie back You look good in the hairnut.
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  Speaker 1: But what I appreciate that what they do is they
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  Speaker 1: have these metal pans in the shape of Twinkie shape
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  Speaker 1: holes upside down. Twinkies are baked up. What you would
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  Speaker 1: consider upside down golden brown bottom is actually upside There's
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  Speaker 1: a lot. I actually used to hear that they weren't,
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  Speaker 1: in fact baked brown, and that was added color. Not true.
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  Speaker 1: They are baked brown on the bottom. Indeed, Yeah, you
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  Speaker 1: talked to the widow of James Dowert about that, didn't
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  Speaker 1: you did it? Spoke to her personally. So they throw
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  Speaker 1: the battery in there. It's baked at a cool three
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  Speaker 1: fifty fahrenheit for nine to twelve minutes. Cool three cool,
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  Speaker 1: uh the after after cool's They you know the famous
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  Speaker 1: three holes in the in the bottom of the twin tie,
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  Speaker 1: those are from the manufacturing process. They're cream filling injectors,
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  Speaker 1: and they stick those three things in there and squirt
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  Speaker 1: in the cream, which I wish they just scort that
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  Speaker 1: in my mouth. So you just want to lay down
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  Speaker 1: on the conveyor belt and go down the twinkie line.
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  Speaker 1: How the stuff sported in your mouth straight from the
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  Speaker 1: the try injection? Yeah, how that sounds good. It does.
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  Speaker 1: So that's pretty much it. Man. They seal it air
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  Speaker 1: tight in the package. And um, apparently that the ceiling
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  Speaker 1: process is really where the preservation comes in, right, because Chuck,
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  Speaker 1: if there's anything that everyone agrees on with Twinkies, it's
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  Speaker 1: that they will last indefinitely. Not true, No, it isn't.
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  Speaker 1: And actually there's only one ingredient in the twinkie that's
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  Speaker 1: added specifically to preserve it, and that's sorbic acid. Right.
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  Speaker 1: There are there are some preservative properties of some of
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  Speaker 1: the other ingredients, um, but ultimately there's only one added ingredient.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: That's meant to preserve it. And it's actually, like you said,
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: the air tight package that makes a Twinkie last. And
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: there are all sorts of urban myths about the one
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  Speaker 1: I like this is that the they're still selling the
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  Speaker 1: original run of Twinkies, which actually is clearly alive because
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: they would be banana flavored. Um. But the Hostess company
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  Speaker 1: says that Twinkies have a shelf life twenty five days, yeah,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: not twenty five years. No, no, but yeah, there there
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  Speaker 1: have been some experiments that indicate to the contrary. Um.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: There's actually these kids who very recently this last school
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: year out in uh what is it, Wallowa County, Oregon,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: two little kids, Logan Waldron and c J. Horne. Um.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: We're talking about whether or not twinkies could last indefinitely,
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: how long they could last? Um. And they have a
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: very encouraging bus driver who I must say, based on
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: this picture, is the arguably the best looking and most
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: stylish bus driver on the planet. And her name is
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: Lisa Morris. And she said, you know what, why don't
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: you guys do a scientific experiment. That's that's a bus driver.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: I know it's quite a babe. I know, I must say,
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: I know. Um, she encouraged them to uh to to
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: conduct their own experience. So they put a double pack
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: my favorite kind of Twinkies in a Mayonnai's jar, closed
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: it and put it in a rock crib, which I'm
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: not sure what that is, but they basically buried it.
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  Speaker 1: And the kids were planning on doing it until they
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: were eighteen, but they just you know, they're like nine exactly.
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  Speaker 1: But she kept encouraging them to wait at least until
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  Speaker 1: the end of the school year, and they did so.
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  Speaker 1: Nine months later, they popped it open, eight the twinkies,
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  Speaker 1: one each. They both said they were fine. One kid
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: said he got a belly ache from it. The other
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: kid said he was fine. So they are now encouraging
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  Speaker 1: teachers around the country science teachers they conduct similar experiments.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: But yeah, so as far as these two are concerned,
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  Speaker 1: a Twinkie shelf life is at least nine months greater days. Yeah, well,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: I know you just mentioned the double pack. I know
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: you like the double pack because there's two of them. No,
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: because of the little cardboard in there, and you can
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: scrape the little uh kakey goodness off the cardboard and
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: eat it. I just lick it off the car board.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: It's like the cheese paper and a on a cheeseburger.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: Do you really eat all that stuff? Oh? Dude, who
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: doesn't take the paper from a McDonald's cheeseburger and scrape
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: the cheese off of it and eat it? People who
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: want to live? Shut up, you've had McDonald's in your day. Pal,
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: Twinky Man, Twinky the Kid, let's talk about Twinkie the Kid.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: I just totally shocked you with that. Yeah. I had
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: a Twinky the Kid t shirt when I was those
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: It was awesome. I wish you still had it. Yeah,
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: I'm sure they're still out there. Yeah, I wonder what
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: why Twinkie the Kid? It's famous. Uh if you've never
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: seen it, and I'm sure everyone has, it was a
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: cowboy motif lasso on a hat and boots. And I
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: saw a dude online today that had a Twinky the
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: Kid tattoo. That's a pretty cool tattoo, my friend. Yeah,
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: that definitely beats taz or a dolphin or a turtle,
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: sunburst barbed wire around your arm. Yeah, so Twinkie the Kid,
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: cool tattoo, even cooler T shirt. I remember seeing twink
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: of the Kid ads in between acts of thunder, the
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: barbarian and hanker for a hunk of cheese. Remember that,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: what was that house rock? Now was like the nutrition people? Yeah, exactly,
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: I got a hanker for a hunk of pocket full
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: of something. Yeah, because hunk of cheese is really healthy
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: for you. That was clearly the dairy Association. So, Chuck,
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: let's talk about twinkies and pop culture. Yeah, this is
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: good stuff. Well, no, not pop culture, real culture history. Yeah,
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: my friend, have you heard of Twinkie Gate? Yeah, go
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: ahead and break that one down. That's good. So there
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: was a guy who was seventy one back in five
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: was running for a place on the Minneapolis City Council.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: His name was George bel Air, and he was actually
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: indicted for bribery because at a I guess a candidate
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: for him. He was the lone candidate for it. I
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: guess it was. He hosted it, he provided, he he
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: provided coffee, kool Aid and twinkies for these senior groups
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: that were there, um, and he was indicted for bribery
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: trying to constituency. They didn't call it kool aid Gate, no,
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: And I was thinking about that too there. I think
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: kool Aid had its run one pop with Jonestown. Oh sure, yeah,
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: will forever be enshrined within about drinking the kool aid. Um,
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: that's an Alexicon. Now drink the kool aid. Definitely, It's
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: got its own thing. Twinkies are much more versatile, you know. Um,
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: it's such an ironic twist to crime. You know, but
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: that's not the only crime that they've been associated with. Well,
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: can I cover this one please? In the nine Dan
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: White of San Francisco famously shot and killed Harvey Milk.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: It was was he a city councilman. He was and
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: a and a supervisor and the first, yeah supervisor, I
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: first openly homosexual public officeholder in the country was Harvey Milk.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: And the mayor also got capped. Mayor also got capped,
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: and Dan White is who did the deed. And the
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: famous twinkie defense was used in his case because they
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: said he was under a severe depression at the time
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: and as evidence they used the fact that he uncharacteristically
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: was wolfing down twinkies and junk food. Junk food. Apparently
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: twinkies was mentioned. It does show up in the in
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: the court transcripts, but it was one witness who used it.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: In passing and actually ding Dong's and ho Hoes were
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: mentioned way more. But yeah, the guy was apparently um
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: homicidal depression brought on by a poor diet, and it
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: actually worked. Rather than first this is premeditated murder, he
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: got manslaughter and eight years that was that, yep, and
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: that the media ran with it in the twinkie defense.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: Speak you still here, But again, why not the ding
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: dong defense. It's even funnier the ho ho defense. Sure
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: that that would be confused with Santa Claus probably you
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: know why, because twinkies are an American icon, me and
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: you and former President Bill the Lady Killer Clinton. Really yeah,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: he actually selected a Twinkie to be placed in the
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: Millennium Time Capsule in alongside the complete works of Louis Armstrong.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: It works at William Faulkner the state flag of Hawaii.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: There's a Twinkie in there too. So in a hundred
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: years people will really be able to find out just
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: how long the shelf life is for twcase, how about
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: half a twinkie that even at perfect Yeah, you've got
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: the thumb out your teeth. Uh So that is the
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: twinkie defense. And um, Harvey mel that was the millennium capsule,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: So we've moved millennium falcon. Thanks for thanks for coming, Chuck. Uh,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: should we talk about the T W I and K
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: I E S Project? I can't wait. Pretty cool he's
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: got and this is university, right, yeah, Rice University. It's
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: kind of a while ago. These students, as college students,
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: are so fun. It was called the test with inorganic
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: noxious cakes with a K in extreme situations, which spells
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: out twinkies. And let's let's go over a couple of
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: things that they did with twinkies. You tell them yours first, Okay,
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: let me. I want to do the water test. Uh.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: What they wanted to do was, um, see what happened
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: when you put it twinkie in water? Straightforward enough, let's
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: sit there, and they said this and this is on
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: their website. As soon as the twinkie was placed in
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: the water, it swelled to approximately twice its normal size.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: A quick tactile observation indicated that the twinkie immediately began
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: to lose its structural integrity. The color of the twinkie
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: paled to an off white color, while the water below
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: the twinkie turned a dark yellow brown, while the water
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: above the twinkie remained clear, which is interesting, and they
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: showed pictures. So basically they left it in there for
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: forty eight hours. They said the creamy filling somehow oozed
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: out of the center and collected on the surface of
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: the water and basically it turned into a lump of
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: goo by the end of it. So that was the conclusion.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: The conclusion, Actually, you don't have the observation. I think
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: the observation was it turned into a lumpy goo of
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: mess in the water. You got my other favorite one
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: second favorite dropping off the building. Did you print that out? No?
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: You do that one? I got another one? Okay, Yeah.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: They did the gravity test on two twinkies get to
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: find out whether or not twinkies are subject to gravity.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: I think they would float up when then been cool.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: So they released twinkies off the sixth floor and I
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: like the picture of the twinkie circle and drop, and
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: they said that upon impact there was a loud splut sound,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: a small crack opened on one side of the twinkie.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: There was no noticeable change in the control. So they
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: dropped the twinkie again. The same split sound was heard.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: Then they dropped the same twinkie. Yeah, and this is
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: that love this line. The fissure in the side of
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: the twinkie wide and again no noticeable change. And basically
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: the twinkie and the control twinkie didn't really completely split
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: up in it, just kind of some of the stuff
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: oozed out. But they are affected by gravity. I did
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: have the conclusion in this week, however, the reaction on
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: impact is much smaller than expected, and they maintain maintain
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: a good deal of structural integrity from such a lofty fall. Yeah.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: Six stories yea. My favorite actually, um was that they
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: wanted to find out whether twinkies were sentient or not,
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: and they decided to run this test last because they
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: had killed a lot of twinkies, as they put it,
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: and they didn't want to know that they were sentient
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: while they were dropping him off six you know story buildings.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: So they actually administered the Turing test, which is normally
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: used to test whether or not a computer has developed
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: an artificial intelligence. Right, if you put a person in
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: a computer in another room or whatever, and you direct
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: questions to both of them simultaneously and both answer. If
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: you can't tell the difference, then the computer has developed
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: artificial intelligence. So they conducted a turn test or turn
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: sorry test on a sophomore at the college and a twinkie,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: and they put them behind a sheet you couldn't see
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: who is who, and they asked certain questions. Um, like
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: they asked in the students. Yes, so question one was
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: what would you describe as the purpose of your existence?
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: And uh, subject B, which was the guy. Uh the
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: answer was to woo women and subject A in parentheses
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: no answer. And it just kind of goes on like that, like, um,
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: they wanted to know how the both of them felt
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: about their mother. Um. They did some free association, like
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: the word health prompted the answer sex for free association
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: from subject B. Um, the the word spam prompted no
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: answer from subject A, and so on. So they determined
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: that twinkies are not in fact sentient, that they do
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: not have intelligence. Is a relief? Wouldn't that be unnerving? Yeah?
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: As a vegetarian, I think, or a vegan, you would
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: have to stop eating twinkies. Oh I'm not a vegan, No,
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: of course not. Okay, Yeah, I am so chuck. Most
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: twinkies ever eaten by a person? You want to guess
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: who it is? Uh? Jerry our producer. She's close. Okay,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: she's very close. Um. Actually, there is a guy who
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: is eighty nine, and I believe he lives in Indiana,
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: and his name is Lewis Browning. He's been eating a
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: Twinkie a day since nineteen. He's up the twenty thousand
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: wow dwarfed by the creator of the Twinkie, James Dewart.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: He lived to be eighty eight and he ate an
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: estimated forty thousand twinkies in his lifetime. Not bad, not
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: bad at all. So it hats off to both of
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: those men. And I actually I was thinking maybe I
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: should start eating a twinkie a day and see what happens.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: You know what they say, Josh, a twinkie day keeps
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: a doctor away. That's not true. That's not true because
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: they're really not great for you. But I think if
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: you in anything in moderation you don't got nut till
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: the twinkies, you're probably all right. But there's Chuck's final
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: thought on twinkies, which means twinkies are done right. I'm done.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: I'm done too, so we'll be done with twinkies now.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: I really, actually I wanted to go eat a twinkie yeah,
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: we should have brought them up here, agreed. I told
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: you too. And you're too cheap to go buy him
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: for it could have expensed it, dude. Yeah, all right,
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: well maybe afterwards. Yeah. Okay, So Chuck Twinkies is done,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: which means it's listener mail time. Josh, I'm gonna call
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: this listener mail from Amsterdam, alright, one of my favorite places,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: as you know, I do know. Uh. This comes from
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: Robin in Portland, Oregon, and Robin was recently an Amsterdam. Actually,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: the funny thing is Robin's friends Steph Stephanie wrote in
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: and told us the story and said, you know, my
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: friend Robin's to Chicken to write in for some reason.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: And I said, you know what, tell Robin right in
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: and she'll make a listener mail with the story. Chuck
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: delivers on his promises, as she did. I was recently
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: an Amsterdam for a combination work holiday trip, staying in
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: a fabulous top floor apartment. I took a break from
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: work one day and wandered to the patio for some
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: fresh air, and I realized I closed a patio door
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: and locked myself out and was stuck. No phone, no keys,
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: no jacket, no way down and it was pouring down rain. Uh.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: The neighbors heard my cries for help. They were able
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: to log into my email account, find local apartment contacts
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: phone number, and throw me their cell phone to make
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: the call. Luckily, the contact had a spare key and
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: was able to let her out in five hours after
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: she gets off work. So I hunkered down in a
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: small corner of the patio. Apparently she had a little
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: space like a two ft by two foot space where
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: she wasn't getting rained on for five hours waiting to
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: be rescued. And did I mention that? By stroke of luck,
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: I had my iPod with me and it just downloaded
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: several months worth of stuff you should know, silver lining,
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: exclamation all caps. Uh. In between learning all about face transplants,
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: exploding lakes, dejabu, flirting, riga mortis, I spent time stretching,
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: doing jumping jack, sweeting the plants, and taking short naps. Uh.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: It was one of the best five hours spent doing
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: absolutely nothing. Really, do I take a step back and
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: just have the time to do that. Josh and Chuck,
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: You're you both keep me informed, kept me informed, entertained,
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: and sane, and thanks to our day together I was
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: able to flex my intellectual muscle by holding my own
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: on who owns the ocean debate with other international travelers.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: So she says, her friends Steph turned us on to
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: uh turn her onto the show and thanks a lot,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: keep up the good work and she has a loyal listener.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: So she was stuck out on a porch and Amsterdam
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: and we got her through. That's excellent, pretty cools. What's
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: her name? Cool? Robin of Portlands Order Robin? All right,
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: thanks for writing in, Robin, And if anyone else out
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: there wants to share your story about an intervention this
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: God forcing you into a situation where you have to
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: listen to us, you can send us that in an
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: email to stuff Podcast at how stuff works dot com.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. Want more how stuff works,
• 25:07
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• 25:09
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• 25:14
  Speaker 1: reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you